Our third biking day we cycled from the South end of Jura at Craighouse, nearly to the North end in Ardlussa, for a ride of 17 miles (27 km). The word, ‘isolated’ was made for Jura, it can only be reached by ferry. George Orwell, who stayed here while he wrote 1984, described Jura as a most ‘un-get-at-able place’. Jura is also home to the Jura Distillery, one of our favorites from the trip and well worth a visit.
Jura Distillery
Jura is also known for the more than 6,000 deer that live there, significantly outnumbering the approximately 200 human inhabitants.
Jura Deer
The most recognizable geographic feature of Jura is the so-called Paps of Jura. The Paps are three mountains on the western side of Jura, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Their highest point is 2,575 feet (785 m). They are steep-sided quartzite hills with distinctive conical shapes roughly resembling human breasts. The word pap is an ancient word of Old Norse origin for the breast.
The Paps from Jura Harbour
Towards the end of the ride we stopped at the beach near Inverlussa for a short break and a visit to Tea on the Beach. Tea on the Beach is a small honor snack bar in a horse trailer near the beach with a couple of tea options and some very nice cake.
Tea on the Beach Inverlussa
The beach at Inverlussa was very interesting. It had been completely take over by cattle on the day we visited. They seemed to be really enjoying the sunny day and were sleeping and sun bathing all across the beach.
Cows on Inverlussa Beach
A few of us strolled past the cows to see what was going on down at the point, and found a beautiful local buck also enjoying the sunny day.
Local Jura buck
At the end of our ride we arrived at a small dock where the Flying Dutchman was waiting to take us to the island of Mull.
The Flying Dutchment waiting in Ardlussa
After a short tender ride we were on our way past the swirling waters of Corryvreckan, the third largest natural whirlpools in the world. But, our crew safely navigated past the whirlpool to a quiet bay on the island of Mull for the night.
